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BMO - AIR MILES

Header Refresh

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TL;DR

  • As my last project working on the AIR MILES team, I was tasked with redesigning the website header

  • My designs were based on data provided by the UX Analytics team and the UX Research team

  • When working solely off of their proposed Information Architecture I determined there were problems with:

    • Inconsistency between mega menus​

    • Level one link order

  • I presented my proposed solutions to the project stakeholders

  • The solutions and revisions I made to their IA were accepted but as of today are still in development limbo

The Project & Research Findings

When I heard that UX Data Analytics was looking at updating the AIR MILES's header. It was a project I was excited to jump in!

They worked together with UX Research where they did a card sorting exercise with the intention of having less Level One links in the navigation.

Current Information Architecture

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Proposed Information Architecture based on UX Research Findings

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Designs Based on Provided Research

Just by looking at the new Information Architecture I could see some potential problems, so I decided to go ahead and design based on the information given to me in order to better support the changes I already had in mind to better the user experience.

Collectors agreed that breaking our main navigation into Redeem, Earn, and Help was the logical way to go.

Initial Designs - Redeem, Travel

Redeem - Travel.png

Initial Designs - Redeem, Merchandise

Redeem - Merchandise.png

Earn

Earn.png

Help

Help.png

The Problems with the Initial Approach

  • As you can see, the idea was to create a multi-level mega menu style header

  • But immediately a glaring problem presented itself: Only Redeem had said mega menu

  • Both Earn and Help were a simple list of T2 links that immediately took the collectors off to somewhere else

  • This was jarring when moving from Redeem over to Earn or Help

My Proposed Solutions

  • Right off the bat I suggested that we rearrange the Top Level items to correspond to the order in which collectors actually engage with the program.

  • So instead of Redeem, Earn, Help it would become Earn, Redeem, Help.

  • My next suggestion was to retool the Earn and Help dropdowns to match the look, feel and purpose that the Redeem dropdown provided.

  • This involved creating new T2 links within the Earn and Help dropdowns and would allow for more important information being shown upfront before asking them to continue their browsing.

  • This would accomplish the goal of giving the collectors more important information upfront as well as allowing for the entire mega menu experience to feel more consistent.

  • Overall this sort of mega menu didn't feel like it was being used to its full potential so I also presented some new ways to utilize the space.

New Designs to Support My Solution

Here are the new designs I put together to present to the stakeholders to support my proposed changes to the new header.

Earn - Ways to Earn

One of the things AIR MILES struggles with as a whole, is letting the collectors know all the ways they can earn through the program.

So I decided to show that we can use this "extra" space to show exactly that. This helps to give the mega menu the "true" mega menu look and feel.

Earn - Ways to Earn.png

Earn - Offers

While Ways to Earn was an educational experience, the main way collectors earn Miles is through the various offers that are going on at any given time.

This presented another option to keep that mega menu relevant.

Earn - Offers.png

Redeem - Featured Rewards

This is a net new addition I presented to the stakeholders.

With this new format and extra real estate created by it, I showed them what it could be used for in the form of showing collectors any featured rewards that might be available now.

Redeem - Featured Rewards.png

Redeem - Travel & Merchandise

Both Redeem - Travel and Redeem - Merchandise remained the same.

Redeem - Travel.png

Help - With Important Links & FAQs

To make use of the space I reminded the team of the new work that was being done with the Self-serve Tools and said we could include a preview to that new work.

It allowed us to continue to create a consistent look and feel throughout the new header experience.

Help - With Flyout.png

Stakeholder Reception and Next Steps

  • I received a lot of positive feedback on my proposed solutions and passed the torch over to the Senior UI Designer to continue to champion my designs after my contract finished.

  • I reached out to the Senior UI Designer in January 2025 and the project is still, as he put it "on the back burner as per AIR MILES style.

  • I'll continue to reach out to get updates about the project and hope to see some semblance of my designs appear on the AIR MILES site.

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